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Edge Hog
Edge Hog (also spelled Edgehog) was competitor robot that fought in Series 6 and 7 of Robot Wars, as well as the New Blood Championship in the second series of ''Robot Wars Extreme''. It lost in the first round in both its main series appearances, but reached the Heat Final in the New Blood Championship, losing to Thor. Design Edge Hog was a box wedge-shaped robot armoured in polycarbonate and titanium with aluminium and titanium side panels. Its main weapon was a pneumatic titanium axe initially capable of striking 20-25 times at 106 mph. The axe doubled as a self-righting mechanism and was accompanied by a small front wedge which was intended to get underneath opponents. While its axe was potent and the robot possessed fair pushing power, Edge Hog required precise accuracy to cause damage, and the Series 7 version of Edge Hog notably lacked a baseplate. In Series 6 and the Extreme 2 New Blood Championship, Edge Hog featured a grey, black and orange colour scheme, which was changed to silver and blue for its Series 7 appearance. Etymology Edge Hog's name is a pun on 'hedgehog'. It could have also been named after the robot's creator, Stephen Egerton, who claimed that its weakness was his own driving. Qualification An earlier version of Edge Hog, an invertible wedge shape armed with interchangeable circular saw and flipper weapons, attempted to enter Series 4. It fought Big Pants in its qualifier, but was left with mobility issues early on after suffering a blow from Big Pants's axe. With Big Pants unable to retract its axe, both robots were soon pitted by the House Robots, and the fight ended in a draw. Neither Edge Hog or Big Pants successfully qualified for Series 4 as a result. Edge Hog also attempted to enter Series 5, this time armed with an axe, but failed to qualify again after losing to Crushtacean. At the Series 6 qualifiers, Edge Hog was drawn against Biothan, Chompalot and Rampage. Rampage was forced to withdraw before the battle, leaving the other three to fight. Edge Hog and Chompalot both impressed the judges' enough to qualify, whilst Biothan was not selected to compete. Robot History Series 6 In its first appearance, Edge Hog faced the 12th seeds Tornado, returning robot Terror-Bull, and fellow newcomer Inshredable. It began by attacking and being lifted by Terror-Bull. Edge Hog went for Terror-Bull again, before being shoved around a few times by the experienced Tornado. Next, Edge Hog got underneath Inshredable and attacked it, before being shunted by Tornado again. As a result of this, Edge Hog found itself in Matilda's CPZ, and the House Robot attacked it from the rear with her flywheel. Edge Hog took considerable damage to its main back panel, got stuck in reverse, and in the process hit the pit release button. Refbot attempted to free Edge Hog, but failed so it counted the robot out. Extreme 2 Edge Hog participated in the New Blood Championship in Robot Wars Extreme 2. In the first round, it was drawn against Chip and RT 81. Edge Hog had a lucky break in its first round battle, as it fought head-to-head with Chip but repeatedly missed, and also came into contact with the hammer of Mr. Psycho, and under this pressure, Edge Hog became immobilised on one side. Yet despite Edge Hog's immobility, RT 81, which had been out of the action until that point, was pushed into the arena centre by Mr. Psycho, right next to Edge Hog. Edge Hog sunk its axe into RT 81's tyre, continuing to attack it until the robot caught fire. Eventually Edge Hog could not help but drive itself into Mr Psycho's new CPZ, sustaining a hammer blow. Edge Hog attempted to strike Mr. Psycho with its own axe, unable to move away, but the house robots pushed Edge Hog into the arena side wall, where its axe became stuck on the arena wall, and eventually into the CPZ. Although Edge Hog would never leave this CPZ, Refbot was already counting out RT 81, putting Edge Hog through to the second round. Before the second round, Edge Hog had problems with its drive system, but these were fixed before its fight with Hell's Teeth. This was one of its best performances, as it hammered Hell's Teeth repeatedly with its axe until the invertible machine broke down. Each of Edge Hog's blows punched straight through Hell's Teeth's armour, with its most notable blow puncturing one of the bot's tyres. Having won the battle, Edge Hog attacked Dead Metal and caused damage to Sergeant Bash. Edge Hog was then attacked by the house robots on the flame pit, but went through anyway. In the Heat Final, Edge Hog faced Thor, who had been in its heat in Series 6. Both robots missed repeatedly with their weapons, hitting the arena floor more times than they hit each other, although Edge Hog's successful attacks left less of an impact than the attacks of Thor. Edge Hog was then pushed into Sir Killalot's CPZ where it was dragged out, spun around, and thrown onto its back. Edge Hog managed to self-right but didn't move afterwards, which resulted in Refbot counting it out and eliminating it from the New Blood Championship. Series 7 In the first battle of Series 7, Edge Hog faced former champions and 8th seeds Panic Attack, its fellow Welsh compatriot Mega Morg, and the returning Spin Doctor. Edge Hog began tentatively, driving into the back of Mega Morg, then axing the top of it. Edge Hog continued to try and attack Mega Morg from its rear, but achieved nothing. By this time, Panic Attack had turned Spin Doctor onto its side, eliminating it. Edge Hog now turned its attention to the former champions. As Refbot counted Spin Doctor out, Mega Morg flipped, then righted Edge Hog. Panic Attack went for the axe-wielding robot next, lifting it and releasing it by the Flame Pit. The two Welsh robots then ganged up on Edge Hog, both lifting it up, and pitting it. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 2 *Losses: 3 Series Record EdgeHogDebenham.jpg|The Series 4 version of Edge Hog, armed with a flipper at Debenham Robot Rumble edge hog extreme2 team.jpg|The Edge Hog team in Extreme 2 edgehog insides.jpg|The insides of Edge Hog edgehog dutch.jpg|Edge Hog at the Dutch Robot Games Welsh ComicCon robots.jpg|Edge Hog (far right) on display at Welsh ComicCon in 2014 Outside Robot Wars After Robot Wars finished, Edge Hog continued to compete in various live events, with a fair degree of success, notably finishing as runners-up to Tough as Nails in the 2003 European Championship. Edge Hog later competed in the 2005 UK Championship, losing its only battle to Ripper. Edge Hog was bought by a Welsh team in 2005 and was heavily revised, internally and externally with new batteries, speed controllers, radio system, pneumatics system, armour and axe. The team fought with Edge Hog in the 2006 UK Championships and fought well against Weird Alice, but lost to Big Nipper and Hades. Edge Hog entered the 2007 and 2008 Championships with moderate success, but is now retired. The team, nowadays known as Team Glitterbomb, used Edge Hog was to compare dimensions during the build of Glitterbomb. Edge Hog's axe mechanism was then used in Glitterbomb after the team did not have enough time to design and build their own mechanism. Trivia *Edge Hog was one of eight competitors from The Sixth Wars to enter the New Blood Championship, alongside Doctor Fist, Mr Nasty, Revolution 2, ICU, Thor, Cedric Slammer and Roobarb. References Category:UK Series competitors Category:New Blood Competitors Category:Robots with more Losses than Wins Category:Robots from Cheshire Category:Robots with puns for names Category:Robots with Spiked Axes/Picks Category:Robots that bore the English flag Category:Robots to never have a judges' decision Category:Robots to damage Sergeant Bash Category:Robots which debuted in Series 6